I recently bought a pair of Altec 9440A amps that I really didn't know much about and researching information on these, of course you always come across info on the VOT speakers. Perusing the internet the other day, someone was advertising a pair of A7-500 that while not cheap, seemed cheap to me for a pair of A7-500's - only going by too fast research on the internet, and having caught a little bit of Altec fever from the research I was doing on the amps, I did something I've never really done before and being totally ignorant about what I was buying, decided I might be eating Ramen soup for the rest of the month and purchased speakers that I didn't even know what drivers were inside them. I don't know if it's true or not but I was told these were bought new in I'm thinking they said 1967, had been passed down to the son who was now selling them - not too wise buying speakers with only that info but I had the fever.
Getting them home, I'm obviously as curious as can be what the heck I have and have been trying to remove the back for far too long and it appears I'm going to have to go get a dremel cutting disk and cut them off. I've been trying to work a knife around them, cutting off decades of paint but it's not working and any attempt to pry on them will result in one torn up back panel. I'd guess it will need replaced anyway but for now I'd prefer not to tear it all up.
Until I can get it off, curiosity is killing me - what exactly did I buy ? Did I really over pay or did I get the bargain I'm hoping I did. Just starting my research I have a lot to learn and it seems as tho no matter what I have I've bought a project, it seems the real question is how much of a project did I buy and will the end results be worth it.
One thing I noticed with the covers off was the speakers were seemingly set up different.
One speaker has what seems to be just the N-800-C dividing network while the other speaker has the N-800-C PLUS a N-1600-D dividing network. Sound wise they seem to sound the same to me tho I haven't yet been critically listening.
Hoping to get lucky and get the model numbers, I stuck my arm in the cabinet and took some pics. I was wondering if anyone could confirm what I think I have or tell me what they think they are.
Also, when taking the pic of the LF driver, I was taking the pic of the one with the additional divider network and the pics showed 2 wires bare, not connected to anything. 1st thing I need to know is there a chance I could damage the dividing network if those wires touch the speaker - if they aren't already ?
Any reason why one would have the extra N-1600-D ?
As for the drivers, comparing pictures with what I took, I'm guessing the LF driver is the 803B and the HF driver is one of the variations of the 802 - would I be correct or am I not even close ?EDIT - these were advertised as A7-500's so the HF driver maybe the 806A ? These are possibly the A7 Magnificent ?
If so, ignorant as I am, are these good drivers to be working with ?
I apologize for my ignorance here, it's just I've never bought anything without knowing what I'm buying before and I'm thinking I got at least an ok deal, don't really want to say what I paid for them right now, let's just say it wasn't a goodwill bargain find.
Bad intro post , just know I'll be pouring over every even semi-relevant thread here shortly though I apologize in advance but will probably end up having a bunch of questions.
Any info u can give me on these is sincerely appreciated.
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